“We really wanted to create an elegance with nothing, through the everyday, through direct manipulations of simple pieces. These are combined with bold gestures of the feminine—jewels, furs—that elevate, that give importance and value and complexity to every look.” This was how (via press release) Miuccia Prada summarized the essential ingredients of the outstanding Miu Miu collection shown in Paris this afternoon. Full of references to the 1950s, the decade in which Prada’s consciousness was formed, her design recipe came wonderfully together thanks also to one act of additional seasoning: the casting.
Miu Miu shows evoke a mood—this season’s being “elegance with nothing”—through the prism of personalities Prada curates to channel it. Akin to a production of theater as well as of fashion, this afternoon’s show featured a cast drawn from many social dimensions. There were professional models, of course, but also a roster of characterful fashion dilettantes whose number included Sarah Paulson, Towa Bird, Isabelle Albuquerque, Oscar Lesage, Suzanne Lindon and Towa Bird.
Many of today’s non-model walkers were first-timers. But several were not: increasingly Miu Miu uses repeat castings of characters to weave a fil rouge across the seasons. Backstage we checked in with three of them, starting with Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban, who made her Miu Miu debut last season. “I am hoping to bring a lot of personality to the runway,” she said. “Instead of walking it I want to bring an attitude to it, and I am excited about that.”
Another sophomore Miu Miu model today making their return from last season was Eliot Sumner, who adopted a studiedly laconic approach to the process. “I don’t really feel the scrutiny,” they said of their runway methodology. “But you know, you’ve got to get from A to B. I kind of walk like I would catching a train.”
